Saturday, September 29, 2012

Now till Nov 12th at Epcot, The 17th Annual Epcot FWF is where you can get a taste from more than 25 international marketplaces. This years 2 new kiosks Terra (located near the front end of World Showcase to the left of the Watermelon patch) And Florida local (sandwiched between American Adventure and Japan)

Festival Center is open during park hours. Like last year, Epcot extends
its hours on Fri and Sat an extra hour for the event. Illuminations also
at 10.

Culinary seminars are offered throughout the day $11 & $14. One hosted by Driscolls and an HGTV home entertaining seminar was free. Limited seats are available first come first serve.

New this year, inside the Festival Center in the back "The
Chocolate Expirience" by Ghiradelli. free samples of Ghiradelli
chocolate caramel squares and see some amazing chocolate art.

Have a Chase credit / debit card? during the festival, visit your very own Chase lounge. Inside you can enjoy drinks, ( soda, tea, coffee ) candy, play on ipads, sit, relax, charge your phone and watch tv. (located in the back of the festival center)

This year the cranberry bog returns with free craisins sample. ( samples are on the small booth adjacent from the bog)

Watermelon patch at the start of World Showcase.

Tried 3, this visit. Looking forward to tasting more in the coming weeks.Chick'n curry and basmati rice with weeds sprinkled on top:

Jerk spiced chicken with Mango chutney:

and Dessert trio:

some event merch located around WorldShowcase or in the Event Center

Night Rangers kicked off this years Eat to the Beat concert.

Other things around Epcot...

Cool Station Wash located just outside Test Track is now running again new paint on the cars.

Work still continues on Testtrack

Haven't been to The Land pavilion in a while... seem to be less plants in the entrance way. If I remember there are huge trees growing in the center. Now replaced with new smaller plants and small rocks.

Over to DHS, where The Legend of Captain jack Sparrow will be....

Over to the Streets of America where about 40% of the lights are up for the Osborne Christmas lights. The large globe that spins currently sit where the large towering tree usually stand. Canopy lights are going up soon.

Other things around the park.

Jumping over to Animal Kingdom: New lockers over by the Kali River Rapids ride. Lockers are not free they are $7 or $10 (small ) (large) for 120 mins. They are somewhat similar to the lockers system at Universal & IOA. The lockers are past the Fastpass kiosks for KRR on the left.

This has to be new.... Never seen it before. They get the crowd and kids dancing. Daily shows are around Discovery Island.

Viva Gaia Street Band

Finally, the Characters of Flight balloon at DtD West side is back home with a new design. The balloon was taken out in July because of an incident with a similar balloon. It was made by the same company that operates the one at DtD.

From the loading platform, Tink, Aladdin, Jasmine and Buzz Light year can be seen.

Saturday, September 22, 2012

A rainy opening night for this year's HHN22 which features new haunted houses minus one from last year with Amity now gone. This year "scare zones" have been replaced with "street experiences". Certain scareators would parade / march down the streets of Universal to switch zones with other scareators which was awesome. Got to see 3 of the houses which passholders had early access for the first 3 Fridays... Looking forward to the other four, for next time. This year, HRRR, Mummy, MIB, Simpsons, and Despicable Me are open for the event. Aside from the Bill and Ted's show there is also a 20 Penny Circus show in the Beetlejuice stage. Also new this year, a short fountain show in the lagoon which uses the Universal Cinematic Spectacular lights and fountains. ( small clip in video below )

Once you're in.... there is no way out!

Video of the Street experiences and a clip from the fountain show in the lagoon. :